Moritz Stiefel
Background Moritz Stiefel is a fifteen year old school boy, living in Germany in the 1890's. Moritz is terrified of failure and is awkward around his peers. He is outcast by both his classmates and his parents. In the musical and play his best friend is Melchior Gabor (who is a year younger than Moritz, but far more knowledgeable on many subjects). Their juxtaposing qualities means their friendship is not understood by anyone in the town, as Melchior is considered to be a handsome genius and Moritz is considered to be quite the opposite. Moritz has been noted as a freak by his peers and a failure by his parents, because of this Moritz feels pressures to succeed in school and in his social life. He is one of the three leads/main characters of the play and musical and dies in both. John Gallagher, Jr. played Moritz in the Original Broadway Cast. Plot When introduced to Moritz, it becomes clear that he is in tight competition with Ernst Röbel to be promoted at school, as both of them were originally given conditions to work off in order to keep their spot. Moritz was very stressed over the time between his first promotion and his flunking out, to the point where he wasn't sleeping. Melchior tries to tutor Moritz but to no avail. Moritz's father (Rentier Stiefel) exclaimed that his actions are going to be to beat and disowned Moritz if he were to fail, so to avoid his fate Moritz attempts to flee to America, asking Frau Gabor (Fanny) for a large sum of money. She refuses and offers to write to his parents in compensation. Despite this, Moritz decides that the only course of action is to kill himself. Moritz is then kicked out of his home and wanders the town at dusk, carrying a pistol. It is then that he runs into Ilse, an old childhood friend and playmate. She invites him to walk her home, hoping he will join her at the artists colony. He refuses and Ilse leaves. Moritz soon realizes that Ilse was his last chance of escaping and calls after her but it is too late, and she's gone. Alone, Moritz silences his voice by taking his microphone before signing his monologue and shooting himself. In the play, Moritz had been fascinated by the Headless Queen so he decapitates himself with the bullet (supposedly the gun was filled with water). Later in the play Moritz appears headless in the graveyard, and tries to persuade Melchior to join him in the afterlife. However, Melchior refuses and asks Moritz to wait until he's old, then he will take Moritz's hand and follow him through to the dead. In the musical Moritz and Wendla appear to help support Melchior and keep him alive until they believe it's his time. Personality Moritz is introverted, intense and nervous. He strives to do well but is easily distracted and feels he will not become anything of worth unless succeeds in school. Fun Facts *Moritz's vocal type is tenor *His nickname is Melchi *Profoundly deaf in the Deaf West version of the musical and fails because of a bias against deaf students *Moritz's Myer Briggs Personality type is INFJ *If Moritz was a fruit, he would be a guava. *May or may not love melchior *Deserves to be happy, but, y'know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pictures __FORCETOC__